21 replies to this topic

[Sarah]

Depends on what you mean by SEO friendly URLs.  Most URLs are SEO friendly, in general.

When people start re-writing the indexed query strings to utilise keywords. This gives them an added incentive not to. I guess.

[torka]

It's always been a bad idea to rewrite already indexed URLs.

IMO, the only reason to use rewrite on query string URLs was if there was something in the URL keeping it from getting indexed in the first place.

My

--Torka

[BlueHorseradish]

This discussion is a few years old and I thought I'd revisit it.
I'm about to do a site redesign for my client.
The URL structure was created in about 2001.
The developer would like to change it to eliminate the current folders and maybe eliminate the file extensions entirely.
So all URLs will change.
If we did this, we would of course 301 redirect all old URLs to new URLs.

Is it still risky to change URLs if you do all the 301s properly?
Has anyone changed URLs and done the 301s and maintained their good rankings?
Has anyone changed URLs and done the 301s and lost their good rankings?

It's always been a bad idea to rewrite already indexed URLs.

IMO, the only reason to use rewrite on query string URLs was if there was something in the URL keeping it from getting indexed in the first place.

My

--Torka

[chrishirst]

Is it still risky to change URLs if you do all the 301s properly?

Nope.

Has anyone changed URLs and done the 301s and maintained their good rankings?
Has anyone changed URLs and done the 301s and lost their good rankings?

Haven't checked "rankings" in years but I've never lost traffic because of a URL change and redirect.

[BlueHorseradish]

Thanks chrishirst.
Any other opinions?

Nope.

Haven't checked "rankings" in years but I've never lost traffic because of a URL change and redirect.

[Jill]

Is it still risky to change URLs if you do all the 301s properly?

Usually not if that's ALL you do. But I still wouldn't recommend changing URLs unless you have to or there's some reason to beyond adding keywords into them.

Has anyone changed URLs and done the 301s and maintained their good rankings?

Yes, all the time.

Has anyone changed URLs and done the 301s and lost their good rankings?

I've seen it happen, but there's usually other reasons. Most of the time it has to do with changing the actual site architecture and how each page links to each other one.

[BlueHorseradish]

Usually not if that's ALL you do. But I still wouldn't recommend changing URLs unless you have to or there's some reason to beyond adding keywords into them.
Yes, all the time.
I've seen it happen, but there's usually other reasons. Most of the time it has to do with changing the actual site architecture and how each page links to each other one.

Thanks Jill!